


stranger things have come true

by openended



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/F, Hands, Neurodiversity, Touching, observation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-06
Updated: 2014-12-06
Packaged: 2018-02-28 10:30:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2729033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/openended/pseuds/openended
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a push and a pull, and the promise of touch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	stranger things have come true

The first thing she notices is Shepard’s hands.

(The first thing she notices is that a human, a turian, and a quarian have come to rescue her. But when the rescuing’s done, the first thing she notices is Shepard’s hands.)

She’s trying to sound intelligent and competent and she’s failing at both, because Shepard’s listening like she actually cares about Protheans and dig sites and the asari bonding process, and Liara hadn’t even expected this visit. 

She’s tripping over herself, babbling to fill up the space, and she hears the idiotic words tumble out of her mouth - _an interesting subject for in-depth study_ \- and can’t pull them back because she’s too distracted by Shepard’s hands.They’re smooth and pale, nearly magical in the dim blue light of medbay’s back office, but her fingers are in constant, subtle movement that Liara knows well.

(thumb to each fingertip in succession, repeat, still, reverse; quiet, settling motions that betray her outward confidence. Liara wrings her hands, Shepard taps her fingers.)

A few weeks later and _lab subjects_ have become a joke they share in quiet moments. Something palpable is developing between them, a silvery thread that grows stronger with each visit Shepard makes to that little office. 

Liara doesn’t want to push - or pull, she isn’t sure which direction the thread goes - in case it’s too fragile. If the thread snaps, it won’t be because of her.

(It doesn’t occur to her until later that maybe the thread strengthens when it’s pushed and pulled; Shepard will tell her, much much later, that she had the same thought and Liara will wonder how it was possible that two very intelligent people could come to the same very incorrect conclusion.)

Shepard’s hands pull her attention again after Virmire. The mess is empty and Shepard’s sitting alone, forgotten mug of now-cold tea pushed to the side, bent over a sketchbook. Her lines are precise and even, and Liara watches with fascination as the _Normandy_ slowly appears on the page. Her pale fingertips are smudged with black, and she doesn’t notice that she has company until she’s finished. 

Shepard looks up, and for a moment her eyes are unmasked, the mission’s toll glaringly obvious, and Liara’s overcome with the urge to draw her close in an embrace. But she blinks and the mask is in place again. Liara knows the importance of illusion, and so stays where she is.

(Once they finish their mission, once Saren is dead and Sovereign is in pieces, Shepard shows her the sketchbook. It’s ships and stations and an alarming amount of geth, but Liara gasps when the straight lines and angles give way to soft curves and crests and the very familiar slope of her nose.)

It’s a pull, Liara discovers. Shepard pushes, she pulls, and the first time she embraces Shepard is also the first time she feels Shepard’s hands on her skin. Her touch is warm and soft, and in another life Liara would hold her breath for fear of shattering the moment. 

But instead she holds tighter, and doesn’t let go.


End file.
